


Measure of a Man

by LadyRhiyana



Series: The Mirror Captain [2]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Mirror Universe, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-27
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:31:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRhiyana/pseuds/LadyRhiyana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Since the very first time he looked up from the barren earth to the sky above, he had wanted more, wanted everything." Mirror!Kirk backstory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Measure of a Man

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, any of the canon characters, situations or settings.

He was born on a dirt-poor farm. His parents spent their lives in back-breaking labour, trying to scrape a meagre living from the rock-hard, unforgiving land. His father was grim and uncommunicative; his mother old before her time, bowed down by hard labour and poor living. They were simple people, content with what little they had – _a hard life_ , his father told him once, in a rare burst of confidence, _but an honest one. There are worse paths_.

He had not agreed. _Surely there must be_ more _than this_. Ever since the very first time he looked up from the barren earth to the sky above, to the stars so bright and promising and wondrous, he had wanted more, wanted _everything_. And even as a boy he set his eyes, his heart, and his considerable will on the stars.

It was unfortunate that his first trip off-world, at age 13, took him to the colony world of Tarsus IV. What little there was of his stoic father and faded mother in him was burned out, destroyed by famine and genocide and Governor Kodos’ kill-squads, who would have killed him if he had not joined them first out of sheer desperation. The first few kills were the worst – an ancient grandfather begging for mercy; a mother curled around her baby as though she could protect it – but he quickly learned to be numb.

It took the betrayal and murder of Governor Kodos to finally draw him to Starfleet’s attention. The coup d’état coincided with the arrival of Captain Garrovick of the _Farragut_ , who commended his initiative and determination and offered to sponsor his entry into the Academy. He accepted it eagerly – _too eagerly,_ Garrovick had said, laughing. _This is your first lesson, Kirk. If you want something, don’t ever let it show._

On that long trip back to Earth, his first time on a starship, all his restless ambition found its focus, and he set his feet on the path to hell – and to the captain’s chair.

If his childhood taught him stoic endurance, if Tarsus taught him cruelty and brutality, then the Academy taught him treachery and corruption in all its forms. The academic curriculum was only the beginning; his fellow cadets were equally cruel and ambitious, and the scuffles for dominance, position and choice postings were literally cut-throat. Any infractions, either real or imagined, were brutally punished by the Academy proctors or, even worse, the upper-classmen, who took every chance to demoralise an unknown cadet with no family influence or wealthy patrons.

Kirk took every single one of the Academy’s lessons, far more sophisticated and refined than those he’d learned on Tarsus, and made them his own. He made himself into their image, into the epitome of Starfleet and the Empire, and he blazed through the Academy and the lower ranks like a shooting star, brilliant and vicious and amoral. His triumphs and successes as a junior officer won him many enemies, but more importantly they won him powerful patrons willing to invest in his career.

The first time he saw the _Enterprise_ , gleaming silver against the backdrop of space, he felt a deep, powerful sense of recognition. Here was the vessel of his childhood dream of the stars, sailing through space into the unknown, to explore, exploit and conquer.

And one day, not too far in the future, he would step over Chris Pike’s still-bleeding body and into the centre chair.


End file.
